The Dictionary's Word of the Year Is All about Women

Despite all the haters, the feminist movement has been alive and well for decades. But with the rise of social media, women's voices are louder than ever, which is why we're elated to find out that "Feminism" is Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2017.

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According to Peter Sokolowski, the company's editor at large, the word spiked several times, most recently after the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal. Women started sharing their own stories of assault and abuse and sparked the "Me Too" movement. Sokolowski shared, "The word feminism was being used in a kind of general way...but it was also used in a kind of specific way: What does it mean to be a feminist in 2017? Those kinds of questions are the kinds of things, I think, that send people to the dictionary."

This isn't the first time "feminism" was featured by the dictionary. In 2015, it shared the spotlight with other words related to social issues like socialism, fascism, racism, communism, capitalism, and terrorism.